Flexible vehicle architecture to enable electrification of every
model series

Fully electric MINI confirmed as MINI 3 door variant

Electric drivetrain Made in Germany, integrated into car in Oxford

Munich. Electrification is one of the central pillars
of the BMW Group’s corporate strategy NUMBER ONE > NEXT and the
company has announced that all brands and model series can be
electrified, with a full-electric or plug-in hybrid drivetrain being
offered in addition to the combustion engine option. Additional
electrified models will be brought to market in the coming years and
beyond 2020, the company’s next generation vehicle architecture will
enable further fully-electric vehicles.

Today, the BMW Group announced that the new battery-electric MINI
will be a variant of the brand's core 3 door model. This fully
electric car will go into production in 2019, increasing the choice of
MINI powertrains to include petrol and diesel internal combustion
engines, a plug-in hybrid and a battery electric vehicle. The electric
MINI’s electric drivetrain will be built at the BMW Group’s e-mobility
centre at Plants Dingolfing and Landshut in Bavaria before being
integrated into the car at Plant Oxford, which is the main production
location for the MINI 3 door model.

Oliver Zipse, BMW AG Management Board member for Production said,
“BMW Group Plants Dingolfing and Landshut play a leading role within
our global production network as the company’s global competence
centre for electric mobility. Our adaptable production system is
innovative and able to react rapidly to changing customer demand. If
required, we can increase production of electric drivetrain motor
components quickly and efficiently, in line with market developments.”

By 2025, the BMW Group expects electrified vehicles to account for
between 15-25% of sales. However, factors such as regulation,
incentives and charging infrastructure will play a major role in
determining the scale of electrification from market to market. In
order to react quickly and appropriately to customer demand, the BMW
Group has developed a uniquely flexible system across its global
production network. In the future, the BMW Group production system
will create structures that enable our production facilities to build
models with a combustion engine, plug-in hybrid or fully electric
drive train at the same time.

The BMW Group currently produces electrified models at ten plants
worldwide; since 2013, all the significant elements of the electric
drivetrain for these vehicles come from the company’s plants in
Dingolfing and Landshut. Dingolfing additionally builds the plug-in
hybrid versions of the BMW 5 Series and the BMW 7 Series and from
2021, it will build the BMW i NEXT. The BMW Group has invested a total
of more than 100 million euros in electro-mobility at the Dingolfing
site to date, with investment continuing as the BMW Group’s range of
electrified vehicles further expands.

Electrification of all brands and model series continues

The new, fully-electric MINI is one of a series of electrified models
to be launched by the BMW and MINI brands in the coming years. In
2018, the BMW i8 Roadster will become the newest member of the BMW i
family. The all-electric BMW X3 has been announced for 2020, and the
BMW iNEXT is due in 2021.

Today, the BMW Group offers the widest range of electrified vehicles
of any car manufacturer in the world, with nine models already on the
market. These range from the full-electric BMW i3 to the company’s
newest electrified model, the MINI Cooper S E Countryman ALL4*, a
plug-in hybrid version of the MINI Countryman, which is produced by
VDL Nedcar in the Netherlands. The company has committed to selling
100,000 electrified vehicles in 2017 and will have a total of 200,000
electrified vehicles on the roads by the end of the year.

The BMW Group has benefited from its early start on the road to
electrification. Indeed, the company’s pioneering, large scale
electric vehicle trial began world-wide in 2008 with the MINI E.
Learnings from this project played a crucial role in the subsequent
development of the BMW i3 and BMW i8, technology pioneers which
themselves informed the company’s current range of plug-in hybrid vehicles.

Strong customer demand and the launch of new models resulted in very
high capacity utilisation for the BMW Group’s production network in
2016. With 2,359,756 vehicles produced for the BMW, MINI and
Rolls-Royce brands, production volumes reached a new all-time high.
This figure included 2,002,997 BMW, 352,580 MINI and 4,179 Rolls-Royce
units. The company’s German plants, which produced more than one
million vehicles, are responsible for roughly half of production volumes.

With its unparalleled flexibility, the leading-edge production system
is in excellent shape for the future. Based on Strategy NUMBER ONE
> NEXT, it is characterised by a high level of efficiency and
robust processes. The BMW Group’s production expertise represents a
decisive competitive advantage and contributes to the profitability of
the company and its sustainable success.

Quality and speed of reaction are key factors in the BMW production
system, as well as flexibility. Digitalisation, standardised modular
concepts and intelligent composite construction testify to the high
level of expertise within the production network. At the same time,
the production system offers a very high level of customisation and
allows customer specifications to be modified up until six days before delivery.

The BMW Group

With its four brands BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce and BMW Motorrad, the BMW
Group is the world’s leading premium manufacturer of automobiles and
motorcycles and also provides premium financial and mobility services.
As a global company, the BMW Group operates 31 production and assembly
facilities in 14 countries and has a global sales network in more than
140 countries.

In 2016, the BMW Group sold approximately 2.367 million cars and
145,000 motorcycles worldwide. The profit before tax was approximately
€ 9.67 billion on revenues amounting to € 94.16 billion. As of 31
December 2016, the BMW Group had a workforce of 124,729 employees.

The success of the BMW Group has always been based on long-term
thinking and responsible action. The company has therefore established
ecological and social sustainability throughout the value chain,
comprehensive product responsibility and a clear commitment to
conserving resources as an integral part of its strategy.